Stiffly Sportacus turned round and looked up at Robbie, his eyes red from the tears he'd cried. He slowly noticed that everyone had gone except for the figure in a purple and red striped rain coat standing with his hands on his hips. He painfully started to get up but his leg muscles resisted after being cramped for so long. As they became more stretched they began to tremble and Sportacus fell to the ground unable to maintain his balance on such shaky legs. Robbie would have laughed at such a display but somewhere deep down he felt sorry for the 'Blue Elf', a great and acrobatic man reduced to a weeping lump that couldn't stand. Stubbornly he walked over to Sportacus and held out his hand to help the other man up as further attempts at standing were met with the same failure and he was getting bored watching him hit the ground.
"Thanks," said Sportacus, his voice wavering slightly. He felt tired and drained and just needed to get away from that awful place where the accident had happened.
"You're welcome. Now, are we going to get out of this rain or are we going to stand here until we catch our deaths?" Robbie caught the word just as it left his mouth; he knew it wasn't the right thing to say after such a situation.
He could see by the look on the younger man's face that he felt very badly for what had happened and mentally kicked himself, he kicked himself again for realising that he should have been glad about getting one over on Sportacus. After mentally kicking himself several times for several different things he began to walk towards his lair, he bade the younger man follow him. Surprisingly Sportacus didn't resist, he felt too weak to climb up his airship and didn't want to be alone even if it meant that his company was Robbie Rotten.
The journey from the town to Robbie's lair was passed in silence, neither man wishing to speak nor having anything to say. Sportacus was lost in his thoughts of what had happened and what he'd done wrong; Robbie was yet again mentally kicking himself for inviting the 'Blue Elf' into his home. They reached the billboard and Robbie opened the door and motioned for Sportacus to go through before he did. Sportacus waited for Robbie to ascend the ladder before he did as he knew where he was going.
After a rather bumpy ride down the pipes to Robbie's lair both men hit the ground rolling over each other before coming to a stop. "CLUMSY -" Robbie stopped himself from saying the second word. He knew that shouting insults would come to nothing and he didn't have the energy to either. Once again he helped Sportacus up from the ground hoping the gesture would apologise for the outburst, the 'Blue Elf' didn't need to be made to feel bad; he felt bad enough already.
"You, uh, want something to eat? I'm sure I have some healthy stuff around here somewhere." Robbie began to search for the afore mentioned food without waiting for a response to his question.
Whatever the response was likely to be Robbie knew Sportacus had to eat something as he was looking fairly peaky. After a little more searching Robbie came upon a Banana he had kept aside to experiment on and trying to see what properties it had. He turned around and saw that Sportacus was standing in the exact same place he'd been left and by the looks of him he wouldn't have received an answer to his previous question as Sportacus was yet again lost in thought.
"Hello? Is anybody in there?" Robbie asked knocking on Sportacus' head like he would a door.
Sportacus was roused back into reality and looked at the Banana in Robbie's hand guessing it was for him, he shook his head to refuse it but found it thrust into his hand.
"Eat it, my guess is you haven't eaten much recently and need something before you drop. Once you've eaten that it might be an idea to get out of those wet clothes, you're leaving a puddle. I'm sure I have a disguise that resembles your clothes somewhere, I'll dig it out as you have nothing else to wear" said Robbie yet again leaving Sportacus to go and find the disguise he'd mentioned pausing only to remove his rain coat and grimace at the wet floor.
Sportacus slowly peeled the Banana and began to eat it grateful for the sustenance; he was also still confused as to Robbie allowing him such kindness. Unconsciously he shrugged his shoulders; he had no idea why Robbie was being so nice. If there would be anyone to have left him out in the rain or laugh at him for not managing to stand it would have been him, why would Robbie do all this for him? Sportacus was disturbed from his reverie by a light tap on the shoulder; he started at the unexpected touch.
"Why so jumpy Sportakook? It's only me and you down here; at least I hope it is…." Robbie glanced around nervously as if expecting someone or something to jump out at them from nowhere.
After he assured himself that there was no one else there and chastising himself for being silly he handed over a blue and white uniform identical to Sportacus' own save for the wetness and the crystal that didn't work.
"Here try it on for size. It should fit you as I think we're fairly matched for shape and size,"
"Thanks Robbie," Sportacus proceeded to look about him for a private corner where he could change but found none, he looked to Robbie for clarification.
"Oh," Robbie looked about also for some private spot where Sportacus could change from one uniform to the other, "I know, I'll go over to the periscope and look at what's happening on the surface while you change. I won't peek at you I promise,"
Doing as he promised Robbie walked over to the periscope and busied himself trying to find something to look at despite the foul weather and poor visibility.
Meanwhile at the Mayor's house Bessie was trying to comfort the Mayor. She'd found him lying in bed with his clothes on evidently trying to sleep. She'd found this odd behaviour but he'd just lost his niece and was in shock the incident having sunk in far too quickly. She sat on the edge of the bed hoping her presence would comfort him if only a small amount, it seemed to do some good as he grasped her hand and held it while trying to capture sleep. Sleep would make it good, sleep would clarify things, perhaps when he woke up he would find out that what had had happened was just a terrible nightmare and would see Stephanie bounding over to the kitchen to drink a quick cup of juice before going to play. Subconsciously he nodded; Stephanie was alive and would be there for breakfast. He'd watch her leave the house to play with her friends and everything would be ok.
"I'm done Robbie," Sportacus called softly.
The trousers were a little bit long for him but otherwise the uniform was a perfect fit. He was glad of some dry clothes and the company. He still felt incredibly guilty for what had happened to Stephanie but amazingly having Robbie Rotten being kind to him took the edge off of it a bit. Robbie pulled his gaze from the periscope and rubbed his eyes, trying to see through all that rain had strained his vision and made his eyes sore.
"Are you ok?" Sportacus asked concerned about Robbie rubbing his eyes quite hard and continually blinking as if trying to clear his vision.
"Yes I'm fine; my eyes are just tired that's all." Robbie stopped rubbing his eyes and went over to his disguise machine; he didn't need to go through them all to decide which he needed now.
With the pull of a lever and a swirl of white, red and purple Robbie was in his pyjamas.
"Now," he said looking around, "who's going to sleep where? I only have my orange chair here in the way of furniture so someone will have to sleep on the floor," Robbie desperately wanted to sleep in his chair but the floor would suffice this once should the 'Blue Elf' take the chair.
"It's ok Robbie, I'll sleep on the floor and you take the chair." Sportacus offered kindly.
Robbie had done enough for him today and he didn't want to push his patience further, he still didn't feel up to going back up to his airship. Without a moment's hesitation Robbie swooped down onto the chair like an eagle and went straight to sleep.
Sportacus shook his head and a ghost of a smile touched his lips, "Night Robbie," he whispered and settled himself down on a dry patch of floor and tried to sleep, he eventually found sleep and slept somewhat fitfully despite his tiredness.